Today on the Go Teen Writers Book Club, we’re discussing Chapter Eleven: Promises.

Chapter Recap:
The whole point of this chapter is to understand that the way you write makes promises to your readers, and it’s very important that you don’t break the promises you make.

Mr. James says that stories are built on promises. Your readers will only trust you because you keep your promises. Did you know you were making promises to your reader from page one? You are. The beginning of your story should set up the overarching promises of your book. Does your hero, who has what she most desires, lose it and set out to get it back? Or, will she see what she wants and go after it? Or, will she be forced to try and escape what she most dreads in life? One of these three options is the promise that Mr. James says will launch your story.

A List of No Nos
Here are six things Mr. James warns writers NOT to do to their readers:

1) Do not indicate that something will be important, then fail to give it any significance. This is something I notice often in movies. Too many Hollywood screenwriters are not careful with this—or it could be the directors and producers who come in and muck a perfectly good screenplay. Regardless, when a story spends a lot of time on a character or plot line only to have it go nowhere, it’s maddening to audiences. So be careful not to do this.

2) Don’t develop conflict, then neglect to resolve it in a satisfactory way. Imagine spending a bunch of time creating a problem that is driving your hero (and readers) crazy. Both cannot wait to be free of this situation. And then the problem simply fizzles. Or the story ends and the hero doesn’t get a chance to overcome that particular situation. This leaves readers feeling frustrated. If you torture your hero, be sure to at the very least give him a chance to get in one good punch.

3) Avoid having your character act in unbelievable ways. Oh, yes. This annoys me so much. I notice this kind of problem a lot in television shows. Random episodes where characters do things they would never do—things completely against their character. This is a pet peeve of mine, and it drives me batty!

4) Don’t grow your character to the point where they should be transforming, then leave them unchanged. Readers say, “Boo!” to this move.

5) Don’t resolve too much tension too early. You don’t want your reader relaxing early on, then putting the book down and picking up another. Space out that tension in just the right places.

6) Do not bring out interesting side characters that readers really like then allow them to disappear from the story. Keep interesting characters around!

Secrets to Developing Suspense
Mr. James gave several tips for developing suspense in your writing. The most important one is to put your hero(es) in some kind of jeopardy. You do this to evoke in your reader one of four emotions:

1) Reader empathy- If your reader is empathizing with your hero, things are good. Be sure that readers know what your hero wants and is working towards. That will increase their empathy for him when trouble comes.

2) Reader concern- If readers care about your character, put your character in some kind of peril. It doesn’t have to be life-or-death danger. It could be humiliation, stress, injustice… Anything that makes the reader worry about your character and root for him.

3) Impending danger- This relates to item two. The reader is concerned when your hero is in danger, but they also worry about the mere possibility that he might get into danger. If you can hint at narrow misses and brushes with danger, this keeps the suspense high.

4) Escalating tension- Whenever you set up that something bad is about to happen, slow things down. This increases tension and your readers scoot to the edge of their seats. Suspense is about making your readers worry for your hero.

What Stood Out:
Mr. James said, “When stories falter, it’s often because the writers (1) didn’t make big enough promises, (2) didn’t fulfill them when readers wanted them to be fulfilled, or (3) broke their promises by never fulfilling them at all.” This is a nice recap of the chapter. When you rewrite, it’s important to look carefully at the promises you’ve made (or haven’t made). Do you need to change some things to make bigger or better promises? Do you need to fix how you’ve fulfilled your promises? Or did you totally forget to fulfill the promises you made? All three are important to be watching for as you write and rewrite.

Tip of the week:
“Foreshadowing is the process of dropping clues in the background to remove coincidences later on.” ~Steven James

Go Teen Writers Archived Articles to Help You Go Deeper:
Five Promises You Make to the Reader
Using Circularity
Genre Conventions and Reader Expectations
Dealing with Genre Expectations

Answer at least one of the following (or as many as you’d like):
• What “No No” do you hate most of all when you’re reading books or watching movies?
• How do you develop suspense in your writing? Any tips to share?
• How are the promises in your story? Are you keeping them? Do you need to work on making better promises or fulfilling your promises better?
• Any questions?